Architecture is Elementary: Visual Thinking Through Architectural Concepts - Softcover

Winter, Nathan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1586858297 ISBN 13: 9781586858292

Publisher: Gibbs M. Smith Inc, 2005

Synopsis

Awarded for its unique ink illustrations, this newly revised edition of Architecture is Elementary is a self-instruction book that concisely and coherently discusses the principles of architectural design.

Stimulating lessons challenge the lay person and trigger creative responses. New features include a fresh design and layout, 50 new illustrations of recent and planned buildings, and new lessons that update the book for the world of twenty-first-century architecture.

Author Nathan Winters explains the rationale for developers choosing to build higher and taller with modern high-rises, and explores the engineering challenges for such giant structures. He also addresses the dangers of such adventurous design in this century, including becoming tempting targets for terrorists. Architecture is Elementary also explores issues surrounding modern landscape architecture, as Winters looks at the impact of green design and cities that seek to reclaim useless spaces (such as inactive railroad lines), converting them into parks for urban use. He also explores the financial and economic benefits of beautified landscape.

The new layout, new lesson materials, and current examples of future thinking in the world of architecture make this a must-have for every serious teacher, student, and practitioner of architecture.

About this title

About the Author

Dr. Nathan B. Winters earned a Ph.D., specializing in art and creativity. He served as chair of the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Utah, where he was a professor for 29 years. He is currently Professor Emeritus from the College of Fine Arts. His artwork is found in many private collections around the country. He has served as educational consultant to the states of Florida, Utah, Hawaii, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona, as well as the Alberta Province of Canada. He is the coauthor of Art Is Elementary. He lives in Midway, Utah.

From the Back Cover

From ancient structures through the millennia of built environments worldwide, Architecture is Elementary is revised after twenty years in print. Winters updates his classic book on the foundation of architecture through discussions of the world's tallest buildings and landscape design, with emphasis on designing and reclaiming green spaces in metropolitan areas.

Already awarded for its unique illustrations in both number and quality, the book features fifty new illustrations of recent and planned buildings. The original edition was voted one of the top 20 on architecture by the National Librarians Association.

The new layout, new lesson materials, and current examples of future thinking in the world of architecture make this a must-have for every serious teacher, student and practitioner of architecture.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

"Ruskin said: ''Great nations write their autobiographies in three manuscripts, the book of their deeds, the book of their words and the book of their art. Not one of these books can be understood unless we read the two others, but of the three the only trustworthy one is the last.'' On the whole I think this is true. If I had to say which was telling the truth about society, a speech by a minister of housing or the actual buildings put up in his time, I should believe the buildings." -Kenneth Clark

Why Study Architecture? Years of research indicate that the lay public has not grown much beyond the fourth grade level in visual literacy. The danger in leaving our culture dangling at the fourth grade level visually is that it is a human tendency not to miss that which we do not know. Quality, then, when not imagined or recognized, is not even missed-much to the joy of mediocrity and her friends congregating on each corner.

One of the basic maturities of education is "environmental." The root words of environment declare it to mean the sum total of influences that modify and determine the development of life or character. In all of the earth''s history, no culture-no time-has been more in need, been more concerned with environment. We want to preserve rare species, to have clean air and pure water, to enjoy rich forests and wilderness areas. The built environment is one of the major Environmental concerns of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The built environment comes under attack from two flanks-historical and aesthetic. The historical attack is actually antihistorical. Many of our finest buildings have become rare species in need of protection. Natural predators in the form of business, government, building codes, demolition crews and remodelers, and modernizers worship at the altar of "progress" as they faithfully destroy our cultural heritage.

Edition details

• Publisher: Gibbs M. Smith Inc
• Publication date: 2005
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1586858297
• ISBN 13: 9781586858292
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 272